Hardships, a Gadget in Persevering Ones Vocation

After a tiring day at school, I arrived at the seminary one afternoon. I immediately went upstairs to change my attire for the games. I moved in haste and suddenly stopped to look at the new list of daily mass servers at the aspirants’ bulletin board. As I examined the list, I was in great shock when I unexpectedly saw my name on the sermonette column. I didn’t expect that I would be given the chance to present a sermonette this early. I felt a lot of emotions; especially being nervous and uncomfortable; nervous because it is going to be my first time. When I returned to my normal state of thinking, I realized that I shouldn’t be afraid because this is going to be for my own growth and learning, and most especially this is for Don Bosco.

At that moment, as I entered the study hall, I started thinking of a good topic for my sermonette. The first thing that came to my mind was the word “hardship.” Since during that week, I experienced many rigors especially on adjusting myself to the seminary schedule and to my studies particularly in integrating problems in calculus, formulating outlines for speech assignments, making circuit designs for my electronics course and many more. Truly, these days were an agony for me. But what is the true meaning of hardship anyway?

All of us have our individual hardships and obstacles in life. When we hear the word hardship, the first thing that comes into our mind is the discomfort it causes us. Sometimes, we misunderstand that word and not think of its helpfulness. According to the Webster’s dictionary, the word hardship is a noun which means a state of misfortune and affliction. Even the lexicons give a negative meaning to this word.

As an example, I would like to share to you my hardships during the first weeks of my stay here in the seminary. As a normal rookie, I thought that life in the seminary would just be all fun and enjoyable, but I was wrong. I didn’t foresee that there would be hardships and trials along the way. I experienced a lot of hardships like waking up early in the morning because it was not my usual routine at home. Moving myself at the sound of the bell, dealing with my companions with their individual attitudes, feeling homesick, feeling tired from work all day, leaving my usual earthly pleasures like playing online games, texting, and watching anime (like Naruto), and lastly enrolling a course that I least like. I know that becoming a religious priest is not an easy and painless vocation. That’s why I need to overcome those little hardships so that I may be strengthened in achieving my primary goal in life which is to become a priest, and not just an ordinary priest, but a holy Salesian priest.

As I strive to overcome all these trials and obstacles, I look up to Don Bosco as my model in perseverance. Our father St. John Bosco endured many hardships during his lifetime, and yet in spite of all those hardships he persevered in his vocation because of his prayer and extreme devotion to our Lord and to our Blessed Mother, Mary Help of Christians. When he was young, he was taught by his own Mother Mama Margaret to get used to little hardships. In fact, we read in the biographical memoirs that Mama Margaret really loved her sons that she never smothered them with cloying affection. Actually, her idea was to accustom them to a sober, laborious and Spartan way of life so that they would grow strong and robust. Don Bosco was trained by his mother to live a life full of hardships. And so it happened when he as a seminarian would go home for summer vacation, his mother would make up his bed with a plain, hard straw mattress instead of a softer mattress which he was accustomed to use in the seminary. Mama Margaret said “it’s best that he get used to sleeping without too much comfort because conveniences are not hard to get used to. And that he must get used of little hardships”.

Much earlier than that, he had many difficulties as a school boy. Most of it was cause by serious financial problems. For instance because of his family’s poverty, he need to walk 5 to 6 miles going to school. Converting that to kilometers, it would be approximately 8.85 kms. That would be like walking from DBFC – Lawaan to Santo Rosario Church near USC – main campus, can you imagine that? And he did all these without complaining. In fact, he completed his basic education with flying colors. However his greatest difficulty was that of leaving their home in Becchi because his brother Anthony disagreed with his plan of going to school…. In spite of the difficulties, he was able to with stand all of these and attain his dream of becoming a priest and devoting his whole life at the service of the young by the help of his prayer and great devotion to our Lady.

And so I encourage you my fellow aspirants as well as you our holy and prayerful prenovices to imitate Don Bosco and take the challenge of overcoming our own personal hardships and making them our strength in persevering in our chosen vocation. Before I end my sermonette, I want to share an equation that keeps me persevering in the seminary: “Derivation of hardships divided by trails, sufferings and hardships plus Integration of faith in our Lord times love to the power of prayer plus tangent squared of patience divided by temperance, hard work and hope equals to a happy way of living one’s vocation.” I hope that you have learned something from my sermonette and that you will use your hardships and trials as your gadget in persevering in your priestly vocation. And finally, let DBTC’s motto truly be our motto: ARDUA NON TIMEO, fear no hardships.